The case of the disappearing files

[sgspecker]

Long time user and fan of XYplorer, but something weird just happened. I was in the process of moving files from one directory to another and they disappeared. The files are missing and don't appear to be anywhere on my computer anymore.

I was going to move them with drag-n-drop. I'd selected them and started dragging them when they suddenly disappeared. I hadn't even moved the mouse out of the source folder pane, yet. Since files can occasionally get dropped into the wrong location, I ran my catalog tool to update my search indexes and did a search for the missing files, but they don't show up anywhere on my system.

I upgraded recently to v18.00, if that makes any difference. Checked that they didn't become hidden, nope. Closed and reopened XYplorer, still missing. Haven't reboot the PC or tried an undelete tool, yet.

Any ideas? Is this a known problem?

Scott

[admin]

XYplorer has built in Undo to take care of mis-droppings. Sometimes some dust on my table can generate a little chaos in the optical mouse behavior and it drops stuff in an undesired place. I click Undo and it's back where it was.

You can also open the action log, Edit | Action Log... (Ctrl+Alt+Z), to see what happened.

But, it's not possible that files disappear unless you actively delete them, and OK the delete confirmation prompt. Even then they should land in the Recycle Bin.

PS: Temporary files can seem to auto-disappear when the owning process kills them.

[MasterBlaster]

I think the disappearing files went to your desktop. Mine is doing this also. If I drag a file from an open zip file and drag it to a directory in XYplorer, it does through XYplorer and onto my desktop.

[admin]

Does not happen here (tried WinRAR and 7zip as zip-opening software; Win8.1).

The OP did not mention ZIPs anyway.

[sgspecker]

In hindsight, I think mine was actually a problem with my mouse. It was getting flakey and jumpy. I did eventually find my files. It was very odd, but they got dropped into one of the few folders I don't have indexed, which means they didn't show up when I searched my catalogs. What are the odds?

Things got a lot better after I changed out my mouse.

-sgs

[admin]

This is exactly what Undo (and the Action Log) is meant for. XYplorer protects you from flakey mice.

[sgspecker]

I'm not sure why Undo didn't work. That was one of the first things I tried.

I wasn't aware of the Action Log. Guess I'll have to go looking for that feature.

Thanks,
Scott

[Dustydog]

Action log is exceedingly useful. And if you want to know just what your undo is going to do, it's the most precise.

Don't depend on the action log, and undo, to contain things from a long action cancelled mid-way.

Some quick info from help:

The Limits of Undo

"A man can undo what a man can undo."

Just keep in mind that XYplorer's Undo is not a forensic recovery tool for lost data. Not a single byte that was overwritten or permanently deleted will be brought back to life by Undo. Always remember:

(1) Undo only knows item names and locations, not data. It will not restore lost data.

(2) Redo is not the Undo of Undo but it will redo the original action as if you would redo it manually now.



Here are some examples that should be obvious by now:

(1) Create a New File; Undo will delete it; Redo will create a file of that name again. If you put any contents to that file then they will not magically come back when you Redo the creation of the file. Same with New Folder.

(2) Delete a file for good (no recycle bin): Cannot be undone using Undo.

(3) Move/Copy a file and overwrite same named items in the target folder: The overwritten data are lost and no Undo will bring them back.

(4) XYplorer disallows that any data are overwritten by an Undo or Redo operation. So e.g. if you try to undo a move, but in the meantime a file of the same name as the originally moved file came to existence, the Undo will not happen. In case of undoing a delete to recycler the shell will pop an overwrite prompt.

(5) If you undo the creation of a folder, any contents the folder might have gathered in the meantime will be lost and don't come back by redoing the creation.
There's a configuration option to have undo/redo delete to the recycle bin. This might save your neck in case of an erroneous undo.

(6) If you undo a Copy and then Redo it, the copy will be made from today's state of the original source and thus will differ from the original copy if the source has changed in the meantime.

Further Notes on Undo/Redo

You can stop an ongoing undo/redo by pressing ESC.



Action Log

The Action Log is the database for Undo/Redo. It tells you in chronological order what you have done, when you have done it, whether it can be undone, or whether it has already been undone and can be redone. It's optionally remembered across sessions so you can finally find out what you did yesterday.

(1) Note that also actions are logged that cannot be undone. E.g. no-recycle-deletions: you can still see what items you have permanently deleted and when; information that can be very useful when trying to recover them using a recovery application.

(2) The Action Log currently holds a maximum of 100 entries, older entries are forgotten. The actual size can be lowered in configuration in case you want to save a little memory. But don't worry, it does not take much memory anyway, so it's recommended to leave it at the max.

(3) Note that you can undo actions right from the Action Log using the right-click menu.

(4) The Action Log works as a history where you can go back and forward and be at a certain position between both ends. Now when you go back (Undo - Undo - Undo - ...) and then trigger some logged action (e.g. delete a file), then the previous future branch is dropped in favor of the new one.

(5) In the Action Log Dialog the green highlighted item is the current item in action history. It's the action that will be undone when you click Undo. Usually it will be the top item, but it moves downwards when you undo actions. When the complete action history is undone you are in "Prehistory". Take care.
You can set any item to be the current action using the right-click menu of the Actions list.

(6) The action is limited to save resources: Only actions with 32,767 or less items (that's the directly selected items, not any folder contents) involved are stored in the action log and can be undone.

(7) The Action Log is stored in the file "actions.dat".